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Tailored to perfection
2019-05-11 
[Photo provided to China Daily]

Recently arriving in Shanghai, Chanel's Mademoiselle Prive exhibition has pulled out all the stops to make an impression on the city and prove its couture is a cut above the rest

Stepping behind a screen bearing an image of the studio door inscribed with the symbolic words "Mademoiselle Prive", visitors enter the world of the French fashion house Chanel, where the past, present and future of this luxury brand unfold on a vast scale at a venue set against the backdrop of Shanghai's Huangpu River.

The Mademoiselle Prive exhibition at the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai is the fourth stop of the grand Chanel showcase after London in 2015, Seoul in 2017 and Hong Kong in 2018.

The free exhibition at 2555 Longteng Avenue will run until Jun 2 before heading to Tokyo in October. Reservations made through the exhibition's WeChat account also give access to a mini-program that enables visitors to experience the showcase via augmented reality technology.

The title of the show derives from the words adorning the door to the studios of iconic designer Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) on the third floor of 31 Rue Cambon in Paris.

According to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, the words are an invitation to discover "the three icons created and designed by Chanel", namely the perfume Chanel N°5, its haute couture and its high jewelry.

The exhibition hall is designed like a garden, where flowers bloom and plants greet the visitor with a flutter of their leaves. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"It's important for us to be able to communicate and help Chanel fans to gain a better understanding of what the brand is about through this exhibition," Pavlovsky tells China Daily in an exclusive interview. "Chanel is about history and the capacity of our designers to understand what is happening now, how they link with the past and how they can keep creating in the future."

A vast complex, the West Bund Art Center has a floor space that extends to over 6,000 square meters, larger than any of the previous exhibition venues. The main area of the ground floor is occupied by giant red blocks spelling out the words "Mademoiselle Prive", while three staircases lead up to three "addresses", each representing one of the three pillars of Chanel's creative world.

On the far west side of the exhibition hall is a cinema showing films that demonstrate "the soul of Chanel, instead of the products", Pavlovsky says.

The exhibition hall is designed like a garden, where flowers bloom and plants greet the visitor with a flutter of their leaves. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The first staircase leads to 31 rue Cambon, the address of the world's oldest surviving haute couture house, which was established in 1918, according to Pavlovsky.

It was here that Coco Chanel revolutionized the silhouette for female fashion and invented a new wardrobe for modern women. She created soft, comfortable outfits that freed women from corsets, and developed enduring pieces like Chanel's "little black dress" in 1926 and the tweed suits of the 1950s. This exhibition also features 33 silhouettes from seven Chanel Haute Couture collections.

It includes a 3D suit from Chanel's 2015/16 fall-winter collection, an outfit that Lagerfeld described as the 21st-century version of Chanel's iconic 20th century classic. Using cutting-edge laser technology, the suit was made like a molding without using a single stitch, before being embellished with braid and embroidery.

Other looks feature unusual materials such as concrete, aluminum, wood, and neoprene, a fabric often used for sportswear. Lace and tweed, the classical fabrics for the French savoir-faire, are also presented, featuring new technology and groundbreaking combinations.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

In the center of the hall surrounded by curtains made of Chanel fabric lies the work table used by Lagerfeld at 31 rue Cambon. Sketches and signage offer visitors additional insight into the creative process of the design studio.

The second staircase leads to the house of Chanel N°5, home to one of the world's most famous perfumes.

The exhibition hall is designed like a garden, where flowers bloom and plants greet the visitor with a flutter of their leaves. The space is laced with the fragrance of the latest interpretation of the perfume, Chanel N°5 L'eau, which is vaporized from a giant bottle in the center of the hall.

When Coco Chanel and perfumer Ernest Beaux created N°5 in 1921, they broke from the tradition of "soliflores"-perfumes associated with a single scent. Chanel asked Beaux for "a perfume that is artificial like a dress, in other words fabricated ... I don't want rose or lily of the valley, I want a perfume that is composed."

Named after the designer's lucky number, the result is an abstract fragrance with a sense of "something indescribable and mysterious," says Olivier Polge, Chanel's in-house perfume creator.

Polge developed N°5 L'eau in 2017: "It was interesting to re-express our identity in a contemporary and futuristic way, while keeping the structure and key ingredients from N°5."

[Photo provided to China Daily]

As a fourth-generation perfumer, and the second generation of his family to work for Chanel, Polge's role is to create new fragrances while preserving the essence of their predecessors.

The company has kept its formula for N°5 very close to the original over the years, he says.

While Chanel has created new interpretations of N°5 in more recent times, adapting them from the original and giving them modern touches, the key ingredients have always been "aldehydes, May rose, jasmine, ylang ylang, and vanilla-but the rest remain a secret," Polge says.

The third staircase leads to Chanel's house of high jewelry. The jewelry showcased in Shanghai is the largest display of all the four Mademoiselle Prive exhibitions, and features a recreation of Chanel's Bijoux de Diamants collection from 1932, according to Frederic Grangie, Chanel's watch and fine jewelry president.

"Because this is Shanghai, we put together very complete message about high jewelry, which always brings us back to 1932, for this is how it started," Grangie tells China Daily.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Gabrielle Chanel was going against all the rules of the market at that time. She had very different ideas from all the older men running 19th century brands of big high jewelry houses.

"She wanted her jewelry to be chosen by women, and worn by them. There was this idea of independence, freedom and style-she liked to present all her pieces on a wax bust."

All this made the first and only Bijoux de Diamonts collection in 1932 revolutionary for the time, Grangie says. "High jewelry has never been quite the same after that".

Chanel is one of the few fashion houses in the world to launch two full collections of high jewelry every year, Grangie says. These new creations feature different themes. For example, one of the most popular pieces in a collection a few years ago were inspired by sailors' tattoos.

After meeting with clients as young as 25 years old in Shanghai, Grangie says the concept of women buying for themselves has not changed over the years: "They know that luxury is about passing on from generation to generation-that's its key component. But what they are truly interested in is something that looks and feels different, something they want for themselves."

Model Liu Wen pictured at Mademoiselle Prive Shanghai, April 18, 2019. [Photo provided to China Daily]

While Chanel never visited China, its art and imagery played a big part in her life. After she discovered Chinese lacquer screens at a Parisian antique shop, she eventually built up a collection of 32 coromandel screens among which she used to line the walls of her apartments.

For the exhibition in Shanghai, Chanel invited Chinese artist Wu Guanzhen to reinterpret these panels. Wu created three lacquered screens on three themes-"Lofty Mountain", "Early Spring" and "Garden of Pleasure"-featuring modern variations on traditional motifs found in Chinese art. With their unique textures, imagery and shimmering colors, these artworks provide the perfect backdrop for the jewelry on display.

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

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